Uniqueness Debate
The uniqueness debate considers whether information and computer ethics constitutes an new branch of applied ethics or simply worsens already existing ethical problems. The term 'uniqueness' refers to the new or special ethical issues encountered within the field of information technology. The term is also referred to as the CEIU thesis, which stands for computer ethics is unique. Since the rise of computing, computer use has led to significant abuse and philosophers argue whether these abuses require a new field of ethics.
Contents
History
Uniqueness debate discussions began when Walter Maner Ph.D, proposed in his class at Bowling Green State University that computer ethics generates new and unique problems.[1]
Arguments
Analysis has shown that computer use has led to significant abuse. Uniqueness advocates suggest that the scope and scale by which moral injustices occur through the use of computing devices establish computer ethics as completely new. Moreover, uniqueness advocates suggest that computer have changed our expectations about a cluster of ethical and social issues. On the other hand, opponents of the uniqueness of computer ethics, commonly called traditionalists, take the view that the use of Internet technology simply generates new tools and techniques that have affected moral decision making.[2]
Uniquely Malleable
It has been said that unique adaptability and versatility of computers justifies computer ethics as an new field of applied philosophy. Walter Maner, Peter Green, and Alan Brightman suggest that the adaptability of computers presents a new ethical duty to provide computing access to persons with disabilities. They claim that other machines 'are infinitely less adaptable than computers' and therefore, the moral institutions about adapting other machinery does not 'readily transfer to computers'.[3]
Unique Scale
Supporters
Walter Maner
Since the second half of the 1970s, when Maner coined the term computer ethics, he has been a strongly supporting the uniqueness of computer ethics. "Computer Ethics is an academic field in its own right with unique ethical issues that would have not existed if computer technology had not been invented."[3]
Herman Tavani
“The powers of modern technology create for us a new moral condition by creating novel powers to act; novel powers to act, in turn, disclose new objects of ethical consideration; and, consequently, novel powers to act require ‘novel ethical rules and perhaps even a new ethics.’” [2]
Traditionalists
Deborah Johnson
Deborah G. Johnson is the Anne Shirley Carter Olsson Professor of Applied Ethics and Chair of the Department of Science, Technology, and Society in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences of the University of Virginia.[4] Johnson published the first major computer ethics text book, "Computer Ethics" in 1985. In later versions of her textbook she wrote that computer technology creates new moral entities and new ethical questions. She insisted, however, that these ethical questions are adaptations of traditional ethical problems and therefore, are not wholly new. [1]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Cambridge Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics, Cambridge University Press 2010
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Tavani, Herman T. The uniqueness debate in computer ethics: What is at issue, and why does it matter?, Ethics and Information Technology 4: 37-54, 2002. Kluwer Academic Publishers.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Maner, Walter Unique Ethical Problems in Information Technology, Science and Engineering Ethics (1996) 2, 137-154
- ↑ "Deborah G. Johnson" Online Ethics Center for Engineering 7/8/2009 National Academy of Engineering <www.onlineethics.org/Connections/Community/DJohnson.aspx>
